Al Ahly booked a ticket to the semi-finals of the CAF Champions League after a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Raja Casablanca in Morocco, winning the tie 3-2 on aggregate.

After conceding an early goal from Fabrice Ngoma’s header and a missed penalty from Ali Maaloul, Mohamed Abdelmonem scored a staggering header minutes before half-time to level the score.

A draw was enough for the Red Eagles to reach the next round thanks to our 2-1 triumph in the first leg in Cairo, setting up a clash with ES Setif in the semi-finals.

First Half
It was an electric night at Mohammed V Stadium in Casablanca in front of more than 40,000 passionate Moroccan fans.

Raja players stepped up the pressure from the starting whistle and their pressure paid off with an opening goal in the fifth minute as Ngoma jumped higher than our defense to put the ball in the back of the net, giving his team an early lead.

From that moment, we adopted a more attacking mindset and Taher Mohamed Taher sent a brilliant cross to Aliou Dieng who was in a perfect position but his header went wide.

Three minutes later, the referee checked the VAR and awarded Hussein El Shahat a penalty after being tackled inside the box. Maaloul failed to convert the penalty as the home team’s goalkeeper made a brilliant save.

We kept searching for the equalizer and our players pressed Raja players in their own half and the only thing that was missing was the goal.

One minute before half-time, a trademark cross from Maaloul found Abdelmonem who was left unmarked inside the box and rose to head home the equalizer.

Second Half

Mohamed El Shenawy and our defense were the heroes of the second half as our eagles put on a solid performance to keep the Raja attempts away from our goal.

We had a chance to take the lead in the game as Percy Tau dribbled the goalkeeper but his shot was not strong enough and was blocked by the goalkeeper.

In the 55th minute, Mosimane used his bench as Ayman Ashraf replaced Hussein El Shahat.

El Shenawy was called into action to block two dangerous shots from Raja players.  

The game then boiled over and Mosimane decided to boost our attack with two substitutions as Mohamed Sherif and Ahmed Abdelkader entered the game instead of Taher and Abdelmonem.

Sherif had two clear chances to put us in front. Our substitute decided to shoot the ball despite Abdelkader being in a better position and his second attempt was cleared over the line by Raja’s defender.

Our players stood their ground and secured a draw that sent us to the semi-finals.